Man pleads guilty to stabbing Preston boxer in row over £20 at HMO in Tag Croft, Ingol
A Preston boxer was stabbed multiple times by a neighbour in a row over £20 it was claimed in court.
Usman Sajid sustained wounds to his head, side, shoulder, and arm in a frenzied attack by a man he shared a house with in Ingol.
Qusai Abdalla admitted carrying out the assault, alleging he snapped after being “bullied and intimidated” by fellow tenant Sajid over a period of weeks.
The 27-year-old will be sentenced at the city’s Crown Court today after pleading guilty to Section 18 wounding.
Another man, 25-year-old Louis Wareing, will also learn his fate when he appears before Judge Heather Lloyd for sentence accused of assisting an offender.
The judge was told the attack happened late on a Saturday night in September last year in a house of multiple occupation in Tag Croft.
The two men got into a violent confrontation on the landing between their adjacent flats. One claimed the other owed him £20, although prosecution barrister Arthur Gibson said it wasn’t clear which of the men, if either, had actually borrowed the cash.
It was claimed Sajid pushed Abdalla in the chest and so he responded by pulling a knife from his pocket and stabbing the local boxer in the side. He fought back by kicking Abdalla in the chest and then the knifeman inflicted at least three more lacerations.
Sajid was taken to the Royal Preston Hospital where he was treated for multiple wounds.
Speaking in court from behind a screen the injured man told Judge Lloyd one of the knife wounds had sliced through a biscep muscle in his upper arm.
As the attack continued he said he shouted at his attacker: “You do this over 20 quid? You’re taking the p*ss.” He then alleged Abdalla told him: “I’m going to do you – I’m going to stick this through your neck.”
In cross-examination defence lawyer Mark Stephenson suggested that all three tenants living at the house had had problems with Sajid. “It was you who was terrorising the three (other) people in the house wasn’t it?” He denied that.
“You were a nightmare to live with weren’t you?” Sajid responded “No, I wasn’t terrorising anyone”.
Mr Stephenson said it was accepted that Abdalla had used the knife in the way he did. But he claimed Sajid had been aggressive and antisocial towards the other tenants and had repeatedly demanded money from Abdalla.
“You harassed him, threatened him, didn’t you” he asked. “No” was the reply. And he added: “Only this time he fought back, although in a wholly inappropriate manner.”
Abdalla, who had previously lived in a “poor area” of London and also spent time living in Yemen as a child, went into the witness box to say he had been stabbed three times as a young man and had served a prison sentence for grievous bodily harm – stabbing someone - after being “groomed” to carry drugs for dealers.
He said that when he moved into the shared house he had initially got on well with Sajid, but soon he was being asked for money “nearly every time he saw me”.
“He would come right in my face,” he said. “He is a known boxer in the area. He would square up to me. He would bang on my door demanding money, especially in a drunken state.”
He told the court that on the day of the attack Sajid had once again knocked on his door asking for cash. “He was obviously in a state – I’m not sure if it was drink or drugs. There were threats. So I armed myself with a knife.”
He said Sajid, who was standing by his room on the landing, pushed him in the chest and asked him for money. “I (thought) ‘enough is enough’ and that’s when I stabbed him.”
Asked where the first stab was delivered, he said: “I’m not sure if it was his chest or arm. The knife was in my hand as I fought with him.
“Then I stabbed him again. I had to because you don’t know what this guy is like. He is a violent guy.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do next. I was scared at the time. I was really scared. When he is drunk or drugged-up he could be very scary.
Abdalla gave “no comment” interviews with police after being arrested and explained he had done so because he was scared.
Judge Lloyd will sentence Abdalla today.
Proceeding.